Christmas Catchup
I hope everyone had a good Christmas! Personally speaking I had a nice quiet time and then I got ill and injured my wrist and am going to try to call into work tomorrow, which will be fun as I was one of the only people on cover because y'know Christmas week. Which, since I've also only just realised it was Monday today and it's now 1am on Tuesday, is clearly the best time to update. Here's a selection of videos from before and just after Christmas for your delectation as I try frantically to catch up and fulfil my internet obligations to little singing robots.
I seem to have missed some tracks this week? A bunch of the new songs on the ranking are completely unfamiliar names to me. I'll have to chalk it up to being busy over Christmas. If I've missed something good, do please go and link it. Also yessss there's a MikuMikuDance Cup on. I cannot describe to you how happy this makes me, I hope a bunch of the entries are totally ridiculous.
【初音ミク・鏡音リン】 アン・イノセンス 【PV付オリジナル】
(Un-Innocence (river), Miku + Rin, Trance Pop...?)
weekly_vocaloid just sang this video's praises and with excellent reason. Reminding me strongly of some kind of wowaka song, this slightly atonal, slightly off-kilter, slightly trance-like track has fantastic energy behind it and a stunning and twisted video to go alongside it. Quite the earworm, this'll sit in your head for days and with good reason.
【初音ミク】Unfragment【オリジナル】
(Unfragment (鼻そうめん), Miku, Trance Pop, PV)
Gosh and heavens. A fantastic full PV accompanies a soft and boppy trance track for the perfect package that easily tops everything this week to my ear. It can be a bit slow - relying too often on hanging piano sections - but the sound is gorgeous and clear, Miku's voice doesn't grate and handles the english well enough, and the whole production is top-notch. Absolutely spiffing.
初音ミクオリジナル曲「君の体温」
(Your Temperature (kuwagata), Miku, Pop)
There's really not a lot to say about this. A brand new piano-and-drums-filled kuwagata track with lovely crisp sound and excellent production values? CLEARLY YOU WILL ALL HATE IT go click already.
鏡音リンオリジナル曲「Shade Slide」
(Shade Slide (peperon), Rin, Rock)
As you'd expect, this week is Twins Week on nicovideo, so you might be seeing quite a bit of them this week. Shade Slide's a pretty fantastic slightly gothic rock number from Rin, illustrated by NEGI - one of the more predominant Rin-drawers out there. Toe-tapping without being too screechy or over the top, and with great waily guitar pieces in there.
【鏡音レン】14【オリジナル曲】
(14 (nata), Len, Pop)
Lest we forget, here's a Len song to get his quota in. Kicking straight into a uplifting piano intro with a great sound to the song as a whole, it's only slightly marred by, er, Len's voice, which is presented in a really funky register. I can't decide whether I like it or not - I mean, it's nice his not being all high, and it does actually suit the song which ends up being a splendid tour de force. But won't someone get him a cough drop?
【初音ミク】Aldebaran【オリジナル】
(Aldebaran (mamomo), Miku, Pop)
This is not the blasted rock you're looking for, nor is it a moon or any other number of Star Wars references. What it is is a lovely pop track from Miku, full of soft beats and percussions and some gentle adorable piano and then everyone going nuts at the chorus and then more soft and lovely music. Sometimes a little scattered or rough, but overall excellent work.
【鏡音リン】ムジーク【オリジナル】
(Music (oppiroge), Rin, Easy Listening)
Clocking in under the 'goddamn adorable' column, along with the 'things Stelas is guaranteed to like' column, comes this pianoful light track from Rin. Like much of the update this week, there's a fully animooted PV to go along with it - what's with Christmas and all these amazing videos? It seems like every second video this week's been rendered fantastically. What happened to just spinning around some static art?
【巡音ルカ】and taboo…【オリジナル】
(and taboo... (maya), Luka + Gakupo, Metal)
A little bit of thrash for you, perhaps? Okay, maybe I wouldn't go that far - this isn't really thrashing and is instead rather melodic rock as Luka and Gakupo duet at each other in a rather engrishy manner about such things as fate and love and his trying to rape her neck, or somesuch. Terribly smooth work, pretty art, what's not to like? Hell, it's almost worth including this just to use the Gakupo tag.
【初音ミクAppend soft】とおかまえのことでした。【オリジナル】
(Before The Tenth Day (toku), Miku (Append), Easy Listening)
Assemble one (1) toku, one (1) copy of the Miku Append software intended to replace the now-aging Miku synthesis for a somewhat clearer and better vocalized sound, and add one (1) dash of Starduster-esque soft song and you'll get this out. It's liable to be too slow for most of you, and it doesn't have that vibe and sheer addictive quality that Starduster did, but it does serve as a good introduction to the Append Soft's sound.
【鏡音リン・レン】裏表ラバーズ
(Two-Faced Lovers (Rin+Len ver.) (orebanana), Rin + Len, Piano and Drums)
Exactly as it says on the tin - a twins version of the now-absolutely-famous wowaka tune.
【リンオリジナル曲】キラメキスノウスターマイン【電飾テクノポップ】
(Sparking Snow Starmine (machigerita), Rin, Pop)
Errrr. Machige does a ... happy... Rin... tune? As strange as that might sound, this is actually a pretty boppy happy listen if you're into that kind of thing. Rin's voice is a little bit way up there and it's a bit too cheesy even for me from time to time, but it's kind of interesting to see it happening to someone other than Miku, for once. It's also reasonably apropos given their birthday.
【リンオリジナル曲】リバァスドールガーデン【ゴシック系】
(Rebirth Doll Garden (machigerita), Rin, Goth Rock)
So, then, to even out the cosmic balance let's have an unhappy Rin tune from Machige, shall we? Full of goth stylin' and an instrumental style I distinctly want to call zithery or perhaps harpsimelanchordic or even sillier words, machige's still on top form for this track.
【古川本舗】 スーパー・ノヴァ 【miki】
(Supernova (furukawa), Miki, Easy Listening)
If you're sick of all the super-energy Miki songs, this is entirely for you. A soft, gentle track full of radio scratching and gentle tones and soft violin, Miki really shows her stuff here - the lyrical line is absolutely beautiful and clear and extremely impressive.
【MEIKO・重音テト】今年のクリスマスは中止DEATH【オリジナル】
(Christmas is Cancelled (無政策), Meiko + Teto, Rock, MMD)
Words cannot adequately describe how much I love this video. An unabashed piss-take that's basically thrown any semblance of seriousness out of the window, this MMD'd track is manic and wild and hilariously animated. If nothing else, make absolutely sure you watch out for Teto's, uhm, guitar solo at 2:20 onwards.
ストロベリー fullver./初音ミク
(Strawberry (ramaarz/atatata), Miku, Pop)
Rounding off the update in the obligatory linked-last-so-you-don't-all-kill-me slot, this is the full version PV of a previous Miku song, done by the artist who did that one little video you've probably never seen, Triple Baka. If you can stomach the song, which is incredibly cheesy and hyper-poppy, the video is generally hilarious and well-worth checking out.
I seem to have missed some tracks this week? A bunch of the new songs on the ranking are completely unfamiliar names to me. I'll have to chalk it up to being busy over Christmas. If I've missed something good, do please go and link it. Also yessss there's a MikuMikuDance Cup on. I cannot describe to you how happy this makes me, I hope a bunch of the entries are totally ridiculous.
【初音ミク・鏡音リン】 アン・イノセンス 【PV付オリジナル】
(Un-Innocence (river), Miku + Rin, Trance Pop...?)
weekly_vocaloid just sang this video's praises and with excellent reason. Reminding me strongly of some kind of wowaka song, this slightly atonal, slightly off-kilter, slightly trance-like track has fantastic energy behind it and a stunning and twisted video to go alongside it. Quite the earworm, this'll sit in your head for days and with good reason.
【初音ミク】Unfragment【オリジナル】
(Unfragment (鼻そうめん), Miku, Trance Pop, PV)
Gosh and heavens. A fantastic full PV accompanies a soft and boppy trance track for the perfect package that easily tops everything this week to my ear. It can be a bit slow - relying too often on hanging piano sections - but the sound is gorgeous and clear, Miku's voice doesn't grate and handles the english well enough, and the whole production is top-notch. Absolutely spiffing.
初音ミクオリジナル曲「君の体温」
(Your Temperature (kuwagata), Miku, Pop)
There's really not a lot to say about this. A brand new piano-and-drums-filled kuwagata track with lovely crisp sound and excellent production values? CLEARLY YOU WILL ALL HATE IT go click already.
鏡音リンオリジナル曲「Shade Slide」
(Shade Slide (peperon), Rin, Rock)
As you'd expect, this week is Twins Week on nicovideo, so you might be seeing quite a bit of them this week. Shade Slide's a pretty fantastic slightly gothic rock number from Rin, illustrated by NEGI - one of the more predominant Rin-drawers out there. Toe-tapping without being too screechy or over the top, and with great waily guitar pieces in there.
【鏡音レン】14【オリジナル曲】
(14 (nata), Len, Pop)
Lest we forget, here's a Len song to get his quota in. Kicking straight into a uplifting piano intro with a great sound to the song as a whole, it's only slightly marred by, er, Len's voice, which is presented in a really funky register. I can't decide whether I like it or not - I mean, it's nice his not being all high, and it does actually suit the song which ends up being a splendid tour de force. But won't someone get him a cough drop?
【初音ミク】Aldebaran【オリジナル】
(Aldebaran (mamomo), Miku, Pop)
This is not the blasted rock you're looking for, nor is it a moon or any other number of Star Wars references. What it is is a lovely pop track from Miku, full of soft beats and percussions and some gentle adorable piano and then everyone going nuts at the chorus and then more soft and lovely music. Sometimes a little scattered or rough, but overall excellent work.
【鏡音リン】ムジーク【オリジナル】
(Music (oppiroge), Rin, Easy Listening)
Clocking in under the 'goddamn adorable' column, along with the 'things Stelas is guaranteed to like' column, comes this pianoful light track from Rin. Like much of the update this week, there's a fully animooted PV to go along with it - what's with Christmas and all these amazing videos? It seems like every second video this week's been rendered fantastically. What happened to just spinning around some static art?
【巡音ルカ】and taboo…【オリジナル】
(and taboo... (maya), Luka + Gakupo, Metal)
A little bit of thrash for you, perhaps? Okay, maybe I wouldn't go that far - this isn't really thrashing and is instead rather melodic rock as Luka and Gakupo duet at each other in a rather engrishy manner about such things as fate and love and his trying to rape her neck, or somesuch. Terribly smooth work, pretty art, what's not to like? Hell, it's almost worth including this just to use the Gakupo tag.
【初音ミクAppend soft】とおかまえのことでした。【オリジナル】
(Before The Tenth Day (toku), Miku (Append), Easy Listening)
Assemble one (1) toku, one (1) copy of the Miku Append software intended to replace the now-aging Miku synthesis for a somewhat clearer and better vocalized sound, and add one (1) dash of Starduster-esque soft song and you'll get this out. It's liable to be too slow for most of you, and it doesn't have that vibe and sheer addictive quality that Starduster did, but it does serve as a good introduction to the Append Soft's sound.
【鏡音リン・レン】裏表ラバーズ
(Two-Faced Lovers (Rin+Len ver.) (orebanana), Rin + Len, Piano and Drums)
Exactly as it says on the tin - a twins version of the now-absolutely-famous wowaka tune.
【リンオリジナル曲】キラメキスノウスターマイン【電飾テクノポップ】
(Sparking Snow Starmine (machigerita), Rin, Pop)
Errrr. Machige does a ... happy... Rin... tune? As strange as that might sound, this is actually a pretty boppy happy listen if you're into that kind of thing. Rin's voice is a little bit way up there and it's a bit too cheesy even for me from time to time, but it's kind of interesting to see it happening to someone other than Miku, for once. It's also reasonably apropos given their birthday.
【リンオリジナル曲】リバァスドールガーデン【ゴシック系】
(Rebirth Doll Garden (machigerita), Rin, Goth Rock)
So, then, to even out the cosmic balance let's have an unhappy Rin tune from Machige, shall we? Full of goth stylin' and an instrumental style I distinctly want to call zithery or perhaps harpsimelanchordic or even sillier words, machige's still on top form for this track.
【古川本舗】 スーパー・ノヴァ 【miki】
(Supernova (furukawa), Miki, Easy Listening)
If you're sick of all the super-energy Miki songs, this is entirely for you. A soft, gentle track full of radio scratching and gentle tones and soft violin, Miki really shows her stuff here - the lyrical line is absolutely beautiful and clear and extremely impressive.
【MEIKO・重音テト】今年のクリスマスは中止DEATH【オリジナル】
(Christmas is Cancelled (無政策), Meiko + Teto, Rock, MMD)
Words cannot adequately describe how much I love this video. An unabashed piss-take that's basically thrown any semblance of seriousness out of the window, this MMD'd track is manic and wild and hilariously animated. If nothing else, make absolutely sure you watch out for Teto's, uhm, guitar solo at 2:20 onwards.
ストロベリー fullver./初音ミク
(Strawberry (ramaarz/atatata), Miku, Pop)
Rounding off the update in the obligatory linked-last-so-you-don't-all-kill-me slot, this is the full version PV of a previous Miku song, done by the artist who did that one little video you've probably never seen, Triple Baka. If you can stomach the song, which is incredibly cheesy and hyper-poppy, the video is generally hilarious and well-worth checking out.